The baby naming game...

It's funny, but I can't tell you how many people seem to think that Brady and I would have no trouble naming this little girl. It's our third girl after all. We must just be ROLLING in extra girl names at this point right?

Naming Cadence was easy. It had been my favorite name for many years. I got lucky and Brady liked it from day one and so we were set when we found out she was a girl.

Naming Rory was insanity! We went round and round and round with no names we both liked. I was going crazy, Cadence was calling her Violet, and Brady kept coming up with names that I felt were just awful. FINALLY a whole MONTH before Rory made her grand entrance into the world we agreed on her name. Cutting it a bit close, but we did finally get her named. Thankfully she came out looking like a Rory, or we would have been in trouble.

Now we are on girl number three. Honestly, had this baby been a boy we would have had just as much work to do. We had some ideas for a boy, but Brady and I haven't ever been in agreement on those either. With a girl though, we were starting completely from scratch. We had nothing. No ideas, and for the first few weeks after we found out she was a she we both just let it sit. Finally I pulled out the 100,000 plus baby name book and started with "A." I went through EVERY SINGLE NAME. Seriously. Took me over a week. I wrote down any name that I liked with no other considerations. When I was done I had a list of a little over 50 names. I handed that list over to Brady and told him to just go through and cross of anything he didn't like. When he was done we still had 25 names! Oy.

So we let it sit. After a week or so Brady decided we should get rid of all the R and C names to cut the list down (since we already have kids with C and R names). That cut it down a bit but not by much since there actually weren't any R names on the list. Next was anything that rhymed or was to "matchy" with the girls names. Nice. We still had 15 or so names...

Again we let it sit. I got back in gear after another week and put our last name with everything on the list. Should have done that sooner! lol The list went down by half once we got rid of the ones that just plain sounded wrong all together. At that point I felt we were down to a manageable list (eight names). We liked all of them and they went well with our last name. However I kept coming back to one name over and over. Oddly enough it wasn't my "favorite." Heck it wasn't even in my top four, but I kept coming back to it over and over. I would peek at the list and my eyes would just be drawn to it. It was actually starting to irritate me. I decided to give it more time and see if Brady came up with any he liked best.

Then Brady came home from work one day last week and told me that he had looked over the names again and that he liked a certain one best over the others. Can you guess what name it was?? Yep. The one I had been drawn too for no apparent reason at all. I laughed when he told me.

I can't describe the feeling really. The name just...fits. Almost like it was her name already and we were just now figuring it out, and to make the whole thing weirder whenever I say it out loud she kicks me.

So...long story all to tell everyone that our third little girl has a name!! And almost a whole THREE MONTHS before she is due. I mentioned it to my mom and the first thing she said was, "Wow. Thats early!" :o) I was surprised too Mom.

Lantz girl number three will be named...

We realize that we know a few Rebecca/Rebekah's. I can only think of one that actually goes by Becca. Oddly enough it doesn't bother me. You Rebecca/Rebekah's that we do know are awesome enough to think it was cool! :o) Added bonus is Cady loves it, and it sounds SOOOO stinking cute when Rory says it in her sweet little 2 year old voice.

We do have a back up name, just in case. I'm keeping that one under wraps because I am 100% sure that when we have this girl in our arms she will be Beckah. Still, it never hurts to be prepared!

We hope everyone is having an awesome Holiday season!

What things are like around here...

Yeah...that about sums it up!

Thanksgiving and other things...

We had a great Thanksgiving here in Nebraska. Just our little family and it was more fun than I thought it would be. I missed the noise and bustle of the family get together, but I did find that I was very nice to have a weekend with no demands, no where to go, and to just enjoy our little family. On Friday we went and saw Tangled. It was very fun and really funny! Saturday Brady tried to put some Christmas lights up on the house. He neglected to check them first so half of them didn't work. We also found out that the outlets on the outside of our house do not work. Going have to get that fixed soon. I picked up some new lights and we will try again this weekend weather permitting. Brady gave a talk in church on sunday. It was wonderful and I am so glad that I decided to go since I hadn't been feeling well.

On other news, I had a Drs appointment today. Everything is going very well on the pregnancy front. Baby girl is very active and her heartbeat is strong and steady. I had the joy of having my glucose screen today as well. I'm not sure they could make that drink worse if they tried. I got lucky for the blood draw and the gal got a vein the first time, but she snagged some tissue before she got in the vein, so I have a really pretty lump and bruise. I was really glad that it was just one poke though. Normally it takes three or four in several different places. This woman was an angel and took me at my word that my hand was her best bet (considering that the last 17 or so times I have had to have either an IV or blood taken my right hand is the only place that has worked). The results came back just fine and I can now look forward to having my Rhogam shot in the next two days. :o) Oh the delights of being Rh negative with a Rh positive husband. This will be my 5th Rhogam shot and if this little girl tests for a positive blood type I will get number six after she is born. It's a pain, but I truly grateful for modern medicine. Without these shots I would have run the great risk of rejecting any babies born after Cadence. I so glad that isn't something I have to worry about.

Cadence's rash is officially gone. She is finishing up her antibiotics and thankfully it seems the rest of us have escaped whatever it is that she had. Her strep culture came back negative, but the Drs told us that it still could have been Scarlet Fever. I'm just glad it is gone!

I hope that everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving and that you are all looking forward to Christmas! Happy Holidays!

Cady's turn...

Seems like we can't go more than a week without someone being sick or something weird happening.

On Friday night, Cadence told us she didn't feel well. Her throat hurt, she didn't want to eat and was very lethargic. By bed time she had a 103.4 fever and was pretty miserable. We give her some tylenol and sent her to bed hoping it would be better in the morning.

Saturday morning she had a 101 fever and was feeling more like her old self. By mid morning she was acting like herself again. So we thought crisis over.

Sunday morning, I woke up and got ready for church. The girls came in about 7:30am and Cadence said that she was itching really bad. So I had her take off her PJs and found she was covered head to toe in spots. A low grade fever was back and she said that her throat hurt again. So we called the TriCare Emergency PCM number and explained her symptoms (the clinic is closed on Sundays). The nurses we talked to were concerned that it could be strep (possibly trying to turn into scarlet fever) based on symptoms. So they okayed us a trip to the quick care option here in our area.

The Dr took cultures and they ruled out a couple of things and said that he really thought it was strep. The lab on the strep wouldn't be back until Monday or Tuesday, but he prescribed us some meds anyway since he wanted her on the mend as soon as possible (you know, since Thanksgiving is like four days from now).

So we started the meds and we are hoping that she will be feeling better soon since she is pretty miserable right now. Here are some pictures of her spots. She has them ALL over. Including the bottoms of her feet, her palms, and inside her ears. So far none on her tongue or in her mouth. It was funny cause the Dr told us to keep the girls apart. Hey, I'll try, but really it's next to impossible.

And here is crazy little Rory. She has been doing pretty good since we started her on the extra fiber. Her stools have firmed up a bit and sometimes they have been completely NORMAL! Woot! lol. We haven't had normal from her in a very long time so this is great. Now if we can just get her gaining weight...

I really hope that everyone is having a great November and that you are looking forward to an awesome Thanksgiving!

Rory's results...

We got Rory's biopsie results today. They were very good and nothing is wrong! I was relieved to hear it and frustrated at the same time. The Dr asked us to put her on a high fiber, low sugar diet (we were already doing the low sugar part anyway) and we will be adding a Benefiber supplement daily to see if that makes a difference in her stools. He also wants us to have her allergy tested (which was the next step anyway). We will go back and see the Dr in January with allergy results and with any luck have something pegged down. At this point though I am ready for them to tell me that there isn't anything wrong and this is just how she is, and that maybe she will grow out of it.

In the end, Rory is happy. She IS grown even if her weight is on the low side, and she is meeting or exceeding all her milestones. I have much to be thankful for in her case and I am already praying that adding extra fiber will help us get over this hill for her.

Thank you so much for all the prayers and best wishes! We feel so blessed to have so many friends and family who love and care about us!

Rory's Upper Endoscopy and Partial Lower...

Rory had her scope today!

Our morning started early (4:30am early) and we hit the road by 5:30am. We needed to be at the BoysTown Research Hospital by 6:15 to check in and get all the paperwork started (there wasn't much but everyone needed bracelets). They took us back to Rory's room and she got some HUGE but sweet Bugs Bunny PJs and the nurse explained everything and had us sign some stuff saying we understood everything.

Then they gave Rory some meds to help her relax and possibly sleep before they actually put her under. They told us that she might be loopy and act odd, but that it was normal. I am still trying to get videos off my phone, but Rory sure was acting silly!! They say it takes 40 mintues for full effect, but she was out after about 20. The nurse brought play dough, coloring supplies and a few games to keep us occupied (other than PBS on the TV) while we waited. They had a sweet play room, but we opted to stay in our room since Rory got loopy pretty fast.

The childs rights lady came in and Rory got to pick what flavor of gas/mask she wanted (she picked bubble gum) and the color of the sticky tape for her IV. They they explained one more time what the scope would be like and that it would be pretty fast. Then anesthesiologist came in (really nice woman) an let us know that Rory would be put out with a gas first, then get her IV (which was good cause since the last time she was "poked" for blood she has had a thing about needles), and that she would be staying with her the whole time until she woke up. Rory was totally out already at this point and a few minutes later (8:15 right on schedule) the anesthesiologist came back and carried her back.

The wonderful nurse brought us all muffins (Rory couldn't eat this morning and so none of us did so she wouldn't get upset). And we waited.

About 17 minutes later Rory's GI Specialist came in and gave us a print out of the pictures of her insides!! lol. They scoped her throat, stomach, small intestines, and then part of her large intestines as well. He told us that visually everything looked really good, but the biopsies would give us a better "picture" as it were. He said if there is any inflammation in the tissue the biopsy would tell. They also took some samples to find out if she had any enzyme issues, especially since she was testing a bit malnourished. The Dr told us that everything went very well and that he would call with results in a week.

15 minutes later they brought me a grumpy and groggy girl. She had acquired a new stuffed puppy and once she was back in my lap she promptly went to sleep again. lol. She woke up pretty quickly at the mention of juice and drank almost the entire cup. The nurse was impressed, especially since she kept it all down, and brought in the discharge papers very shortly after that.

Rory and Mommy took a 3 hour nap as soon as we got home. :o)

We are super glad that it all went well. We are super proud of Rory for being such a trooper (I don't think she cried once the whole morning). We feel so very blessed to have had some of the best, and most caring Drs and nurses during this whole ordeal. We are super grateful to all our family and friends and their prayers on Rory's behalf. We are truly blessed to have all of you on our side. Most of all we want to thank our Heavenly Father for giving us peace of mind and the right people at the right time to help our daughter. Life is so much easier with the Lord's peace and help.

Thanks everyone! I will update with more normal things in a few days and of course when we get her results. If nothing obvious turns up the Dr did say that we should be heading to an allergist next.

It's a...

GIRL!!!!

We know them and love them!

Rory is 2!

I did mean to post this on her actual birthday. But this new baby is making my life very hard. I am still very sick with morning sickness, though the meds do help a bit. We are praying that things will be better very soon, but so far it is just coping with the symptoms. :o)

Rory turned 2 on the September 2nd! We had a little cake for her and it was super fun to sing to her and have her "get" what was going on. Best moment of the night?

(after Rory blew out the candles...)

Cady: "Rory what did you wish for?"

Rory: "Cake!"

Oh the simple things!

We have been so lucky to have Brady's parents come and visit us this past week! We have done some very fun things (no pictures on my end...sorry just not feeling up to all that) and I was very proud of myself for going out and braving the world despite the fact that I still want to toss my cookies most of the time. It was fun. Brady and I even got to go out on a movie date! We haven't done that in a long while!

I do want to say that my mom-in-law is wonderful! She pretty much cooked and cleaned the whole time she was here. It was very nice for me and I am soooo very glad that she was more than willing to help out. She is totally awesome and we love her so much!

We also took Rory in for her 2 year check up. She is getting taller! She was 93% for height!!!! Sadly she was only 3% for weight which was a HUGE difference. This is the first time she has been seen at the base clinic here and so I brought up my concerns. I'm not sure if I have ever posted about this here, so I will be cover everything now. Rory has had chronic diarrhea since she was about 11 months old. I'm not sure if she had some before that since she was still having the soft baby stools. In the last year she has only had THREE solid stools. Three. None of this seems to bother her, though she does get more rashes than Cady ever did (for obvious reasons). She also eats like crazy. She eats more than I do most days and we often joke that she eats like a 400 pound man. I spent a day calculating her calories a couple of months ago and she was getting close to 3000 calories in a day. 3000!!! And yet she only gained 3 pounds this year.

Her old Dr would just tell me it was toddler diarrhea and that it would go away. It's not. So I brought it up to her new Dr at her appointment. He was concerned, especially with how far apart her height and weight were. She is developing just fine in every other way (above average for a lot of things) and she doesn't show any signs of malnourishment, but we are thinking that is because of how much and how often she eats. The Dr decided to start with some screening and stool tests that would help us eliminate or focus in on one problem or another. He was very honest that this could be something very simple or it could be something very serious or it could be nothing at all. I am just glad to be looking into it and hopefully be getting some kind of answer.

So we have another appointment in two weeks for results. We were sent to the lab to have her blood drawn. Er...yeah. I was NOT looking forward to this. Then the lab tech tells me that she will have to come back a couple more times. HUH? Because she only weighs 22 pounds they can only take 10 milliliters of blood at a time. So the poor girl was going to have to get poked more than once so they can get enough for all the tests! Well it turns out I was worried for nothing. Rory is totally not bothered by having blood drawn. She has great veins like daddy, and despite her size they were able to find a "juciy one" (tech's words not mine!) right away. I bear hugged her and there was another tech to hold her arm straight and Rory just watched as they poked her and drew the blood. No crying. No fear. Just sat and watched. Crazy kid. :o) So at least I don't have to worry about the future blood draws! lol. As we were getting her taped up the Techs hand me a brown bag with all the tools for collecting her stool samples. I have to collect three stools in three different cups, I have to collect stool for a vial, and then I have to collect three different smears for the smear cards. Yeah. Thats like 7 different samples. Thankfully I was told the smears could come from the three cup stools (thank heavens). My problem now is how to collect these from her diaper since it's DIARRHEA and just absorbs. Saran-wrap is going to get me some, but I'm thinking that could be really leaky...ugg. They are just going to have to deal with what I can get I guess.

And I'm totally sorry that I pretty much just talked about poop for a whole paragraph.

Once those results come back we should know something! I hope anyway.

On to more interesting things. We are flying home to visit family and to have Rory's Birthday party this week! YAY! I can't wait. It will be so nice to see everyone again and catch up!

Thats pretty much all thats going on with us! I did put up a girl/boy poll for the new baby, so be sure to vote! We should be finding out sometime in October!! YAY!

We are still here...

Update time! I am still pretty sick but I have been given medication to help. It does for the most part. I am still very sensitive to smells and that has been a bit of a problem for everyone. There is a limited group of things that I can cook myself with out being sick about it. So far everyone is handling it pretty well though I know we are all ready for me to feel better so that life can be normal again. I really want to be a wife and mother again. Right now it is hit and miss, but I am happy to say that my family is taking very good care of me, especially Brady. He has been amazing through all of this. I can see how tired he is too, but he doesn't complain and he just keeps right on going. Just makes me love him even more than I already do.

The baby is doing just fine. My Doctor is excellent and I am very happy that I was assigned to him. He has just returned from deployment so I don't have to worry about him getting shipped off right in the middle of my pregnancy, and he is very nice and did everything to make me comfortable (well as comfortable as things can be...I'm sure that all you women who have yearly check-ups know how that goes). We got to see the baby and everything looks good. Good strong heart beat and was wiggling around like crazy. The baby was measuring a bit smaller than my dates (a week to be exact) but the Doctor decided to leave my due date as is since I am 100% sure of when my last period was. And a week really isn't that big of a deal since due dates are give or take two weeks anyway. He said we will re-evaluate at my my big ultrasound. I am really looking forward to getting well into my second trimester since that is usually when I feel better. Then I might really enjoy this miracle. :o) I would have picture of the baby to show you but the Doctor couldn't get the machine to print so we will have to wait till next time.

Other than that stuff things have been pretty boring here. Mostly I try really hard to keep the house from getting out of control and the kids busy and happy while I try to feel better. We are looking forward to a visit from grandma and grandpa in a couple of weeks and then a visit to Vegas after that!

Yuck.

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I have been having the worst morning sickness I have ever had in my life. It is horribly debilitating and I am exhausted on top of that. I am trying to still be a mom to my girls and hoping that everything is fine with the baby. I don't know anything yet because I have yet to see a doctor because the Military is exceptionally slow. I am really hoping that there is only ONE in there. I do have appointments scheduled finally and I am looking forward to getting some relief from these horrible symptoms. If you have been on facebook at all then you know that I have been trying everything under the sun and nothing seems to help for very long. I feel the worst for Brady though. He has been working long days and then picking up the slack at home as well. I know he is exhausted but he hasn't complained once and I am so grateful for him. He has made or picked up dinner every night for the last three weeks. He does laundry, changes sheets, gives baths, plays games, and brings me anything I ask for. I am so very lucky to have him but I really want to get back to doing my job!

Anyway, other than my all day sickness, things here are going well. We have planned a trip home at the end of September to celebrate Rory and Aidric's birthday's together again. I am really looking forward to seeing everyone and staying for a week. As of right now I am flying alone with both girls which could be interesting. They are excellent flyers which is very good. They both love planes and get beyond excited for take offs and landings, but I still have to get all of us in the airport, checked in, through security, and then on the plane by myself. All while getting dirty looks and snide remarks from other passengers for daring to bring two children on a plane with me. Should be super fun. :o)

Well thats all for now. I hope that everyone is having a great summer!

I traded dry heat for...

...flies. I have never seen more flies than I have in the two-ish weeks we have lived here. It is ridiculous. Every. Time. I open a door they invade and despite searching Walmart from top to bottom I haven't been able to find a fly swatter.

Thank goodness for Bonnie the Wonder Dog. By the end of every day, BTWD has found and annihilated every fly that has invaded my house. Not joking! She is fast and relentless. It's like cats with and a laser pointer! She stalks them and takes them out. It is for this reason alone that I can forgive her for peeing on the carpet a few times since we moved in. :o)

Other than the flies things are good. The girls and I are gradually adjusting to the time change (2 hours ahead of Vegas) and I am slowly unpacking the rest of our stuff as I go. Thankfully I haven't been sick with this pregnancy yet and I am holding out hope that I will get lucky and not be sick at all. It would be very nice.

So...PICTURES! I took some of the house and I am finally now getting them up. So here you go! (Please ignore the insane mess that is my house. #1 We just moved in, and #2 I have small children and a husband which make it always look like we just moved in.)

Below: Our living room with our new TV Stand/entertainment center (because our old one was broken in the move). It's beautiful. I know.

Our new couch. We left our old, broken down couch behind.

The rest of the living room including Cady and our insanely old recliner that still works like a dream. There is a powder/half bath to the right there and a under the stairs storage closet to the left.

My craft/brady's computer room and the dining room. Still lots of unpacking to do.

The Dining room and the door to the back yard. We had to get a new kitchen table. Our old one was round and it was impossible to get around it and open the door to the back or get to the kitchen...it was just crazy so my mom hauled the table and chairs back with her and we found this beauty at the Nebraska Furniture Mart. More on that later.

One half of the kitchen...

...and the other half.

The laundry room, which houses my furnace, ducting, and other stuff that I have no clue about...

...and it also houses my washer and dryer that we had to buy the day we moved in...cause the house didn't come with them...my mom and I put in the shelves on our own as well.

Upstairs we find the master bed room. This is easily the BIGGEST room in the house. It is insane how big it is. There is a closet with shelves in the room, a postage stamp of a bathroom and then a walk-in closet as well. Plenty of room for the new little one to share with us for a bit though.

Cady's room.

The view of the back yard from the spare room. I'll take more of the back yard later.

The spare bedroom...or the "we don't know where to put this stuff yet" room.

The kids/guest bathroom.

Rory's room.

And now for the best room in the house. There is a linen closet in the upstairs area as well as a little computer nook/desk. Next to the master there is another door. We were confused at first, but it is a...closet...with it's own window. Yeah. Really. It is at least 10 feet deep and 5 feet wide. My sister named it "Harry Potter's Nook" and I think I will stick with that. All the kids toys that we don't want crowding their rooms and the rest of the house are in here.

And thats about it for the house. We really like it, though I think the downstairs could be a bit better in layout. It will certainly do for the next two years at least. You will notice that we had to pick up a few pieces of new furniture. Not everything survived the move but thankfully everything that was important did. We get reimbursed for the stuff they moved that didn't make it so we didn't feel to bad about having to replace it. We got the TV stand, bookshelf and table and chairs at the Nebraska Furniture Mart. The Nebraska Furniture Mart is INSANE. They claim to be the biggest furniture outlet in the USA and I believe them. I thought Ikea was big. This place is like five Ikea's. No I am not kidding. There are at least five HUGE warehouses filled with furniture, electronics, computers, etc. We got really good deals on everything as well. They are very organized and have one whole warehouse dedicated to pickup. It was awesome. You can check them out online too. It's totally an experience.

We are gradually getting our bearings in the city as well. It's very green here and we don't have a sprinkler system. We had to get hoses and sprinklers and I have to remember to water the lawns, tree and flowers everyday. Well except the days it rains. Trash comes once a week and we have one whole can that is dedicated to "yard waste only." We had to buy a lawn mower. It's pretty awesome. :o) It got pretty hot today (100 degrees with some pretty crazy humidity) but for the most part it has been in the low 90s and 80s which feels like heaven to me after many a summer in Las Vegas. I have a feeling that I will be pretty cranky come winter though. Me and snow aren't exactly on "friendly" terms. Winter is gonna suck for me.

We are supposed to be here for at least two years, per Brady's orders, but we recently found out that most people in Brady's job end up here for a lot longer. So this could be our home for a good many years if we are lucky. I'm not looking forward to moving again anytime soon.

So far we really like it here in Nebraska. Well, minus the flies. The flies could go to...somewhere else. :o) Hope this post finds everyone happy and healthy and enjoying your summer!